Beginnings

It was weird the other day as I went to Paul Guest's blog a day earlier and saw the same comment from anonymous that he ended up commenting on himself.

The whole comment elicited a response halfway between shock and hilarity to me. I wish if people were going to masquerade as knowing something that they'd at least put their real name.

I love Paul's work. His memoir's going to be amazing too.

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Speaking of poets, I have to issue a congratulations to a friend and very talented poet who just won a book contest.

Unfortunately, I can't say anything else, since the contract stuff isn't done yet. That said, there's another reason why I'm doubly excited that this particular friend one this particular contest.

More later on this front.

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Saw The Lovely Bones recently. Despite the horrible reviews mostly, I actually liked it a lot. I knew I was going to like it a lot when the movie opened with the first track from Brian Eno's "Music for Airports," with snow swirling above a penguin trapped in a snow globe.

The music and cinematography are fantastic. Stanley Tucci deserves an Academy Award for playing George Harvey.

Also liked The Road a lot, though I'm hoping for a director's cut DVD so it's longer. They did a little too much on the cutting room floor.

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I registered for what I hope is going to be a great class next semester, and I decided to get a jump on some of the novels we'll be reading.

The first I read was A Thousand Acres, which I didn't know much about. Liked it a lot, though I'm not sure how I can respond to the King Lear aspect of it.

I wasn't sure what was going to happen at first, but the whole thing kept building and building and building, and though it was pretty depressing by the end (which I liked), I was amazed at how she was able to build the story around the families. There's a lot I have to say about it, so that'll be good for the spring.

My goal's to read all the books and reread them for the class.

Blood Meridian and Interpreter of Maladies are the ones I'm reading next.

Hoping to get them all done by the time I got back on January 26th.

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I really hope to challenge myself this semester and write stuff that isn't easy for me to write. I want to branch out and experiment, though I don't want to experiment to the point where the poems become exercises in music or form without meaning.

I need a new project for my third manuscript. Where will I find you, new project?

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Decided to sell a bunch of my DVDs.

A lot of Criterions I haven't watched, (though there are many I will be keeping that I still love) mostly because I once had a crazy idea that I'd get the whole collection. Yikes.

There are bunch of Anchor Bay flicks that are out of print that I've already made good money on. Great movies, but if I paid $10 for each and get at least $40 for each now, not to mention that there will undoubtedly be new and superior versions out in the future, then why not sell them now?

Plus, Blu Ray's becoming something I want to deal with in the future, though I can't see myself spending too much money to get superior versions of already good versions of DVDs I already own.

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Hoping to get to my movie and music lists before I go back for spring semester also...

Endings

This year went quickly.

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Going to see THE ROAD again in a crappy little theater in Hermitage. Saw it in NYC a few weeks ago. Loved it, but I want to see the cut of the film how it was supposed to be. I hope that happens.

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Need to get my movie list in order, and my favorite records of 2009.

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Have a ton of books I want to read. Novels too. Not just poetry. School doesn't start again until January 25th. I don't think I ever had a break that long in PA and VA.

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This is one of the paintings I'd love to have for the cover of Ghost Lights. I hope Lois Dodd lets me have it and doesn't want a ton of money. Since I love it so much, I'm sure it'll be unable to grace the cover.

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Five blurbs in for Ghost Lights. Still waiting for a few more. Need to have the galleys. I'm thrilled that people are saying such nice things.

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Haven't written a decent poem in a long time. It's been the longest stretch since I started writing. Haven't sent out a lot of work recently either. Though I do have the last handful of poems from the new manuscript out at a good amount of journals still, and some of them have had them for a while. Maybe the rejections are coming along slowly. Maybe someone will actually want something.

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I need to begin a third manuscript, but I'm not rushing it. I don't think the second one's going to change all that much. Maybe I'm crazy, but it's weird and I like it, and it represents a significant part of the changes of the last few years.

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I do have high hopes for production this spring semester. Hopefully I don't let myself down.

28

The end of the semester, as those of you know who are in school or teach at the college level, is upon us, and the insanity, though past the start, is still in full swing. Hence the lack of updates.

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I turned 28 today.

I had a pretty amazing year.

My first book got accepted for publication by Dream Horse Press.

I got married to an amazing woman, and though I'm biased, our wedding was also amazing.

I got into four out of eight schools for my PhD before finally choosing Binghamton University and moving to Vestal, New York with Jess.

And I "finished" a second manuscript, which is now officially at a total of nine contests and open reading periods.

I'm not quite sure how all of that happened, but it did, and I'm extremely thankful.

That said, the last the thing I want to do is slow down.

My new goal is to have the second manuscript accepted for publication by the time I turn 30 in exactly two years. It's lofty, I know, but I really feel that it's in a much better position than Ghost Lights was at that point, and even if it's deemed not so, I'm going to keep sending it out.

Though I didn't get a ton of poems written during this semester, which I expected, I'm hoping to come back fiercely next semester.

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I keep thinking about the page length for single collections of poetry. Ghost Lights, in a .doc file, is exactly 51 pages of actual poetry. At one point, I probably had it up to 60, but I kept cutting, and that's one thing I made a point to do, especially with published poems.

That's how the new manuscript is, too. I think it's exactly 50 pages of poetry. I like it like this.

I probably always will.

Longer collections seem to bum me out. I always keep finding poems in collections that I would've cut. Maybe I'm too hard on those books and my own manuscripts? Not sure.

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Spent last weekend in Goshen, New York, at my Aunt Janet's for Thanksgiving. Saw a lot of relatives, drank well and ate well. Can't ask for anything more.

The weekend before Jess and I went to Baltimore. She had a suturing class she decided to take part in for her job, and since I literally hadn't been anywhere since Ithaca in three months, it was good to get out of Vestal for a bit. Had a blast. Met new people. One of the best weekends I've ever had.

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Speaking of getting away, here's an interesting blog post by Susan Rich: Artist Residencies - What You Should Know.

Residencies and colonies have always been funny things to me. I've never applied to one because I've never had the desire or need to go to one, but this seems like a good start for those who are interested.

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Hopefully Ghost Lights will be out sometime around May 2010. Once I get the galleys, which should be soon, I'm going to spend day and night looking, changing, questioning, finalizing.

I already have some folks who said they're interesting in reviewing it, and I'm in the process of setting up some readings for next year. There's still a lot I need to learn about all this promotion stuff. Thankfully I have a lot of writers I can talk to.

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There's probably more I want to write, but I can't remember anything else. Except that The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans was a great movie. Hilarious, dark, fun, and insane.

Kind of pissed The Road didn't get a wide release. Hopefully in a few weeks though. The Lovely Bones better be wide, because I'm psyched to see that too, but I'm not holding my breath.

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Oh, and it looks like the new issue of Handsome is out and shipping in December.

Look at that cover. Wow.

There's a poem in there issue from Ghost Lights, and it looks like I'm in good company, which is no surprise to me.

Anew

The new Diode issue is up. I have three poems in it, tentatively from my new manuscript.

But, as always, I'm with very talented folks. Jason Bredle. Karyna McGlynn. Michelle Bitting. Neil Aitken. Just to name a few. Thank you again to Patty and Jeff.

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Also, the new issue of Blackbird is up. Check it out too.

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Finally, a trailer for The Road is up. What bothers me initially is it looks like there's going to be tons of CGI, which could prove disastrous. I hope it's only establishing shots. Can't wait to see the no-longer-used turnpike shots from the Breezewood area, and also what they filmed at Conneaut Lake Park, if it's even recognizable.

But overall it looks like it could go either way. A lot of the creepy people in the book look like they're still that way in the movie, so we'll see.

I'll try to see it in the theater first if it doesn't leak before October, but I can't make any promises.

Take care of us. Please.

I've been thinking about this for a while now, and I'm sick of thinking about it at this point. So it's here.

5 Old School Records I Still Love... in no particular order:

The Regrets - New Directions: Results Beat Boasts - 1997

The Regrets came out of the remains of Vitreous Humor, also a band worth checking out. When I listened to all the Crank! stuff, they were a band I was interested in because of Vitreous Humor. One of the best things about it has to be Danny Pounds vocals. I think this was before his collapsed lung, and though it's been done before and will continue to be done before, it reaches a combination between singing and talking, sometimes separate, sometimes both. The lyrics are also great, and you can tell he reads a lot. And musically, the dissonant guitar, which is usually playing bizarre chords and imbibing in scraggly left-field acrobatics, just works perfectly. The lo-fi recording fits every instrument too. This was their only record. I interviewed Danny shortly after for the now-defunct zine Rocket Fuel, and the interview used to be archived online until I think about a few weeks ago. Since then, Danny Pound has gone kind of country. But if you can track this down, try to. After nearly twelve years, it still holds up so well.

Sweep the Leg Johnny - 4.9.21.30 - 1997

Sweep the Leg Johnny is one of the bands who really got me into music during my early high school years. I had a zine (even before Pitchfork I think, if such blasphemy can be uttered) called The Cupid Kidnap, where I, you guessed it, reviewed records. I was in contact with a ton of great indie labels and got great records to review, and none of them knew I was still in high school, which was nice. Though one time I tried to interview Don Caballero at a show in Cleveland, and Damon Che was a complete dickhead. The situation was later rectified when I called Ian Williams a few months later in Chicago, for an interview that's still on a tape somewhere that didn't get transcribed.

I don't exactly remember how I heard Sweep the Leg Johnny, but I then started talking to the singer / saxophonist, Steve Sostak, who was always a super nice guy. The first time I heard this record, on a shitty cassette tape I think, I fell in love with it. The recording's great, even for a a little studio in 1997, and each member has their own strengths they wholly contribute. There are rock bands with saxophones, but it works so well here. Chris's dissonant weird-ass guitar. Matt's rolling bass lines. Scott's awesome rolls and fills and subtle technicality on the drums. Steve also is a smart guy who you can also tell reads a lot, and it seems to show with his lyrics.

Somehow I was able to convince them to come to my hometown and play a show nearby in Mercer, where I ended up getting a few bands to come. They stayed at my house, thanks to my parents being awesome, did laundry, we watched Flatliners and they told me about some of the Chicago locations. I remember I had to take a vocabulary test the next day on Fahrenheit 451. I was a sophomore in high school. All of us were so pissed because the words were ridiculous, and the student teacher who gave us the test felt really bad. We stayed up late, I had to go to school and take a test, and my mom made them pancakes in the morning before they left.

If you have any old copies of Held Like Sound, I did an interview with them and John used my pictures from said show. Was that really over ten years ago?

Six Parts Seven - Things Shaped in Passing - 2002

Still one of the most beautiful records ever made. My first real breakup was in college, and she broke up with me. I was working for our radio station as a DJ wanting to work myself up the ranks, and I remember the day this promo came in. I immediately went nuts, having loved every single note they played before this, and put it in the CD player. I still remember the feeling I got when "Where Are the Timpani Heartbeats?" played. I knew that it would be a record I would forever be indebted to.

I recently posted pictures on my Facebook page from their record release show, in which they played every note from Things Shaped in Passing. Having obsessed over the record for months, it was, probably needless to say, one of my favorite shows ever. James Haas even broke out the screwdriver for the reverbed lap steel at the end of the aforementioned first song of the record.

One show (out of maybe ten or more I attended in the last six years) I attended with my buddy Wes (we saw a few) was a semi-disaster at the

I don't know what's going on with them: if they're broken up or on hiatus or back to work, but this record will always always get spin opportunities.

Castor - Castor - 1995

If someone asked me what record I've listened to the most during my lifetime, it would probably be Castor's self-titled record. Their first. Which is now nearly fourteen years old. Which is insane. One of the odd things about this record is that it should've been an EP, and not a full length. It's around 28 minutes long I think, and that's pretty damn short. But I think of a book of poetry like this in a way: it's so short that you always want to return to it. You never skip the first section and only read two and three. You never skip the last ten pages because by then it's just too much. It's the book that's 45 pages and wins a contests that's supposed to be a minimum of 48 because it's got its own small ass-kicking embedded soul.

I had a wild idea with a friend that we were going to start a label and put out a Castor 7". I had a feeling it would've happened if the band, like every band, finally spiraled toward the inevitability of break up.

Jeff Garber is now in National Skyline, who's clearly heavily influenced by U2. Check out his stuff. It's good.

We used to talk a lot on the phone. One time he told me he cheated on his girlfriend. Then he said, "Don't tell anyone about that." And then he paused. And then he said, "Though I don't know who you'd tell there." As a Podunk Pennsylvania high schooler, he was of course right.

One thing that pisses me off is the Castor mix tape he made me, which I remember listening to one summer over a week or so when I painted our garage. Pipe dreams later were discussed: a Castor double-CD anthology. So I sent him the tape without recording the amazing Castor songs that weren't released but were on the tape. So they're gone. But God this record's great.

Mercury Program - A Data Learn the Language - 2002

Another one of my favorite instrumental records. I remember driving into Richmond for the first time listening to this. Thanks again to Pir for letting me crash on his couch.

It's another record that has so many great moments. Inter-locked melodicism abound. Tons of technicality. Yet it still remains kind-of a pop record.

I had a chance to see them at the, not-surprisingly at this point, now-defunct Nanci Raygun in Richmond. I remember I ended up getting drunk instead. And the next day I was so pissed. They're supposed to be amazing live.

Check. Out. These. Records.

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Thanks to a friend, I realized Seth "Mr. Omnipresent" Abramson has this list on his blog.

Had I not already heard from Oklahoma State, I have to admit that I'd probably be freaking out just a bit at least. But it's still this murky pool of confusion, because everyone thinks if a date had already been chalked up and it wasn't you that got the call, then you're done. Out. No call or email.

But that's definitely not the case. Many factors are involved. Money. How many students they're taking. Letting their favorite picks know first. Waitlisting. Response times varying year to year.

One thing I'm thankful for: being done with my MFA. I've said it before in previous posts, but there's so much written about it now that it's almost become the cool and popular thing to do. So many more students in MFA programs = less and less folks succeeding. It's the nature of the beast, yes, but there are going to be a lot of sad students at the end of their two or three years.

Still I have six schools to hear from, which is nice. And Oklahoma State is giving me plenty of time to let them know, which I very much appreciate for that reason.

One of the things I tried not to do was look at lists of top schools. Or should I say, "top schools." I personally think all of that talk is hilarious, and I probably always will.

I remember one fairly prominent poet talking about a fairly prominent school in California, where she attended and then dropped out. As she told me, "I already had a book, so for some reason the students were gunning for me and needlessly tearing apart my work because of that." Was I there? No. Could I see this happening? Absolutely. And why, on God's green earth, would anyone want to have that kind of community at a school? I'm not saying everyone needs to go into the woods and become nudists and worship the earth with perpetual smiles about peace and love and a warless world, but when people are dicks like that, it just makes me sad.

And I know some of that goes on at other programs. Sometimes it's probably tough to avoid. But that's exactly what I do not want in a program.

Probably about a year into my MFA, I realized I was going to have to take it upon myself to figure out where I wanted to go and what I needed to do to get there. And thankfully I can use that wherever I end up for my Ph.D, and for that I am proud and excited and thrilled.

I know it's going to be a lot of work and a rough four to five years. But I want to get another book together I can send out to contests. Or who knows: maybe two. I'd like to write stuff that challenges my core.

And all these issues with money. Does an extra [insert here] grand matter if you're still not going to bust your ass and try to always keep pushing yourself? Nope.

Anyway, I find myself wanting to stop talking about all of this and then always picking it back up. But I'll let this lie for now as I continue to wait and hopefully have a chance to weigh some options.

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On the chapbook front, I've gotten it together and I think it may be ready for editors to see.

But what's the harm in letting it sit a while with so many poems from it still out in the world?

I feel like if I'm going to spend the money to send to contests, I'd rather throw Ghost Lights out there.

But my confidence is building. Maybe this is even the possible half of a new book. Who knows?

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I started watching The Wire yesterday, and realized I probably shouldn't start.

My conscious is saying, "Spend time with the poetry books and get questions out to the first book interview poets," and I think it's right.

So The Wire will be put on hold. Sixty-minute episodes are also a haul, especially with seasons of twelve.

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And apparently the film version of The Road is finished. Finally.

Don't get excited yet, since it'll probably end up being released at the end of the year.

I hope a copy leaks soon enough somewhere online.

Burned-out and scorched apocalyptic Pennsylvania.

I can't wait.

The Road

I've been listening to THE ROAD now for the last few weeks, on my IPod after I put it on there, maybe a month, and I'm still not done with it. I've read it before, and you should too if you haven't.

I was hoping sometime late November I could go to a theater and watch it. But now it's been pushed back until early 2009.

People have seen the early screenings. You can read reviews. I wish I was one of them.

I'm pretty sure the movie is going to be amazing.

It was filmed mostly in western Pennsylvania. I'm from western Pennsylvania.

The landscape is beautifully chaotic and insane. When I go back to Greenville, my hometown, there are things I'm so ineffably in love with it clearly cannot be defined by words.

But there are other times the ugly and disgusting side comes out. And all I want to do is burn it to the ground.

Love does that to you.

The side where a girl commits suicide in high school and because the town is so small you know about it. Or there's a fist fight at the guard rail near the edge of the high school and there are so many punches thrown to the head and violently landed that it makes you sick, and when the guy who gets the shit kicked out of him is throwing up, you're throwing up too.

I always got sick at those fights. That's why I can't watch boxing maybe. I can't take it. And I'm always obsessed with it.

But listening to THE ROAD, I've had a chance to take so much in, beyond the novel readings.

Every single line and word. I said it in a previous post, but this is why Blake Butler's SCORCH ATLAS will be important to me (by the way, I won't stop talking about Blake's book -- and if you're reading this, you need to get it when it comes out); it refuses to give up on the words, on the situation, on the fact that in one second a bullet can slug through your cranium.

But it's odd that I know it's ending. I know how it will end. Everything with the beach.

I am looking forward to every scene and every word. I truly think this may happen to our world.

I don't know how someone can read it and not think that. I just always wonder about the father character. Everyone says, "This book is about a father and a son. And about a father who takes care of his son."

You can place your words there, however you choose.

And I understand them.

But the reality of it is there's a desolate landscape. And there's a good chance that neither one of them make it. And around them is ash and gray and trees falling and cannibals and people who will slit your throat at the drop of a hat. Whatever the hell that means.

When this movie is actually out at the theater, a theater around here, I'll be there.

And this might be a thing might be a thing might be a thing of the past.

The Road Script Bits

I don't know how it's possible but everything, and I mean everything, from the book is in this script. No attempt whatsoever has been made to gloss over some of the book's more difficult subject matter and nowhere has Penhall tried to explain away the unexplainable. He truly gets this book and he gets why it was so effective. For example, we're still not told why the world is a charred smoldering pile of ashen snow, though there is a small hint at the beginning. The ambiguity is terrifying and Penhall is willing to let us draw our own conclusions about character motivations.

THE ROAD (The Film)

I'm pretty sure the film version of THE ROAD has wrapped. Apparently last week the finished in Oregon, doing some scenes for the coast, which most likely are toward the end of the book.

I'm writing about it here because the majority of the movie was filmed in Western Pennsylvania, where I'm originally from. It's a bleary place, especially in the fall / winter. A lot of overcast, clouds, gray skies, etc. and seemed like a perfect place for a film with post apocalyptic tendencies. Maybe one of the reasons my first manuscript is filled

One of the places I never knew about initially (even though I essentially pass it when I come home from Richmond) is near Breezewood, an abandoned turnpike now turned into bike trails. You can read about it here. The bottom photo, covered with ash and gray and smoke, could easily be a good location, which is why they decided to use it I'm sure.

There were some places in Pittsburgh (I think a warehouse in Shadyside for the scene where the father and son find the kind of bomb shelter with all the food), some scenes with farmland and "road" shots in smaller towns like Nemacolin and Gans, Raccoon State Park in Pittsburgh, and apparently the "cellar" scene (where they used actual amputees and naturally (?) skinny people in make-up) was filmed outside of Pittsburgh (Zelienople maybe?) in some mansion.

Then they went to Lake Erie and filmed again what I assume to be some of the coastal and beach scenes for the near-end of the novel.

The film is slated for a wide release November 26th, which is pretty quick considering everything has to be done in a lot less than 6 months. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis are doing the score, so that should be great. And after seeing THE PROPOSITION last week, which I like but didn't go batshit crazy over like some folks, I have a lot of faith in John Hillcoat, though the environment will be the complete opposite of the aforementioned.

Thanks to the Pulitzer nod, Oprah raving over it, and people who don't usually read good novels starting to read THE ROAD, I hope the fact that it's being made so quickly doesn't hinder the quality of the movie. I hope Viggo can do justice to the father, though I don't have any doubts.

Read more about the movie here if you're interested.